THE BRIGMAN CREW

The Brigman Crew is in fact alive and well!!

2011-10-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well I feel a little silly writing a post after over a year has gone by! I know all of you faithful followers had given up on me. Thanks for the motivating/hater comments. :) I decided that I in fact do need blogging in my life. Not because I love to blog, but because I dislike scrap-booking even more, and my kids pictures and stories need to be documented. So here's to falling off the horse and getting back on!

Have you seen my kids lately? They are perhaps the cutest, smartest and funniest little people I know. And they just came that way..I promise.. it's nothing I can take credit for. I love them more than life itself. Here is the update on them.

Noah is 5 years old! As I signed into my blog account and looked around, I found a draft for a post I was working on in June of 2010...it was all about him turning four. Oh my, the shame. Since I never posted it, lets just move on to how cool Noah is now that he is five, shall we?

Noah turned five in June and it has been so great to see this little boy grow up. I have really noticed a big difference in him in the past few months. He coming out of the little boy phase and becoming more independent, brave, less needy and so helpful to me around the house and with his sister Mia. Noah is so social and is such a good friend. He has made some really great friends from our ward and is so great to be a friend who shares with others and is truly concerned about others and their feelings. It warms my heart. Noah is the best big brother on the planet. He loves Mia so much and thanks Heavenly Father every night in his prayers that "Mia chose me to be her big brother, because I am the best brother."

Noah went on a vacation with the Dastrup family and was so sad that Mia couldn't come along. I told him that maybe he could try and pack her in his suitcase. :)He in fact did try to pack her and Mia was a very willing participant until he started zipping up the suitcase with her inside it. Despite their age difference, these two have so much fun together. Mia can wrestle with the best of them and has virtually no love for "girly" toys. Its all cars, army guys, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and superheros around here. But she seems perfectly content to play along with Noah, and Noah will play with anyone willing, no matter their age or intellectual capabilities. :) I decided to keep Noah in preschool for one more year and he LOVES his sweet teacher and classmates. He also started soccer last month and is so fun to watch. He runs hard and has a good time. He is a good sport and is enjoying playing soccer with his friends. Oh how I love Noah. He keeps us all smiling and laughing around here.

Mia will be seventeen months old this month! Mia was such a good baby! She rarely cried and was a good sleeper and eater. I was certain that this good-natured baby was going to be a sweet, calm and quiet little girl. Oh how things have changed :) Mia is the life of the party. She has no problem keeping up with her brother. She began walking at eleven months, or maybe I should say running! This girl has some wheels. At about thirteen months she started wanting to get out of the stroller on our walks and would instead run along side me while I walked. I can confidently say that Mia can run/jog/walk a full two miles. We are pretty sure she is going to be a cross country/track star. Which makes me super excited! She loves books, doggies, riding in the trailer while her dad pulls her on his bike, wrestling, dancing, music, her best brother Noah and mac 'n cheese. I love this little girl so much. She has brought so much joy to our home. And oh how I am enjoying dressing a little girl!! :)

And our final update...Baby number three is due March 11, 2012. I am eighteen weeks along and we find out what we are having next Friday! Adam is certain it is another girl. We will see! Noah says he will be happy with another brother or a sister but if its a boy he wants to call him Indiana or Dr. Jones for short.:) Anywho, we are all so excited about it. I am especially excited to be over the first trimester and have my energy back and to be enjoying food again! Life is so good and we are blessed.

Time Warp

2010-07-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

What is going on? I feel like I have been in a time warp! It has seriously been long enough since my last post that I considered giving up on the whole blog business. I just don't make it a priority...plain and simple. I am sure I have time for it. I have time for lots of things that I want to do. I just choose not to do it. My mother has been severely disappointed in my lack of posts and reminds me nearly every time a see her or talk to her..which is usually at least once, sometimes two times a day. Especially since our darling little girl Mia Melinda was born over two months ago and I have yet to post a single picture of her! So here goes with the post I should have done a while ago.

Mia Melinda was born on May 19th. We went into the hospital early that morning and I was induced. It was a whole different experience for me that Noah's birth, which was just crazy hard and fast! Kind of like Noah actually..ha! Adam and I watched a few movies on his computer and hung out until my labor really kicked in. I got an epidural early this time and was very excited about that, but much to my dismay it only made my left leg numb! Um could I get that numbness in my torso area please. Anywho--they had to re-do it and it finally worked about 15 minutes before our little Mia was born. Mia was 6 pounds 7 ounces and 18 3/4 inches and had lots of dark hair.

I love little Mia so much I can hardly stand it. She has the most darling hair and the sweetest smile. Growing up I thought my mom was amazing but also a little crazy for having seven children. But then I had Noah and Mia and although being pregnant is not my most pleasant or pretty of circumstances, I now totally get why she had seven children. Because there is nothing better in the entire world than being a mom. Adam is honestly the most amazing dad on the planet and has been so sweet and helpful with our new addition. And Noah has been the sweetest and proudest big brother, which has been so fun for us to watch. I am just convinced that my two kids were good friends before this life and will be great friends forever. Life is good and I feel so blessed. Here is our new little angel.

Mia's photo shoot

2010-03-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

So I went back to the 3D imaging center, with Adam this time, to see if we could get a good look at our sweet baby girl's face. Can you believe these pics! How cute is Mia?! What a little angel. She was sucking on her hand during the ultrasound so the technician pushed on my belly to push her hand out of her mouth. She gave us a big frown about that. Pretty amazing! When we got in the car afterward, Adam said, "I am ready for her to come out right now." I totally agree. We seriously can't wait to meet her. 2 months to go!!!

Homestretch

2010-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

I am in the homestretch. I am officially in the third trimester. I can still paint my own toe nails, I can walk fast with a belly band on (soon it will be more like a waddle), food is no longer the enemy and life is good. My favorite thing to wear right now is stretch pants, not sure how cute I look in them, but they are soo comfy! Here is a belly picture! You will notice that my face is not included.
When I was thinking of getting braces months ago, my mom suggested that I get them on at the same time I was pregnant so I could “get all the ugly over with all at once.” I thought this was a great idea so thus the braces were put on in October just after I discovered I was pregnant. I have seen a few pictures of myself with braces on and I can’t help but feel like “the ugly” is a quite a bit more intense than I was expecting! Why do high school kids look so cute with braces on? It’s not happening for me. So here is a straight belly pic of me...brace face is not included :)

PRAYER

2010-02-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Noah is such a funny child. I need to be better at recording all the silly things he says. We had a family home evening lesson on prayer recently. We try to keep things simple for him and speak to him on his level in these lessons. He is usually trying to stand on his head throughout the lesson, so we have to keep it engaging and to the point. During this lesson we talked about how to start and end a prayer, what to pray for, what we do with our hands, eyes, body during a prayer etc. We also told him that anytime he is afraid or sad he can say a prayer in his head and Heavenly Father will hear it. He has used this against me a few times at bedtime when he wants to just “say it in my head mom…really quietly,” instead of out loud. So since this lesson Noah wants to say prayers of protection, so Heavenly Father will “keep me safe from bad guys” and most recently he has been praying for things he wants. He came to me the other day with a picture of a pirate nutcracker from a book we have. He has an obsession with pirates and nutcrackers…so this was the perfect combo. He pointed to it and said, “mama I am going to pray and ask Jesus to get this pirate nutcracker for me.” He then folded his arms, bowed his head and said a short but sweet prayer asking that a pirate nutcracker be delivered to him. What a kid. I think we need the “what to pray for” part of the lesson again. Love this child!!!
p.s. don't you love this picture. Thanks Allyson!

Christmas

2010-02-13T22:20:00.001-08:00

I somehow managed to make it to February without posting a single picture from Christmas! Oh well, better late than never right. We had a fabulous Christmas in Salt Lake with Adam's family. Christmas with Noah was so much fun this year, making treats for friends, reading Christmas books, watching all the Christmas classics etc was just so much for both of us. Here are a few of my fav pics.

OUR CHRISTMAS CARD

NOAH GOT A CALL FROM ONE OF SANTA'S ELVES ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

GMA & GPA BRIGMAN'S TREE

NOTE FROM SANTA

Baby Mia

2010-01-06T21:27:00.001-08:00

I realize that this post is WAYYYY overdue...but blogging just seems to be the last thing I can find time for lately. Anywho--WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!! Hooray! I was scheduled to have an ultrasound at my OB's office on January 4th to find out the sex. I was perfectly content with waiting until then but Adam could hardly stand it. He called me from work one afternoon about a week before Christmas. He had done some research and found a 3D imaging center near our house. He called them himself, found out their price and when their next available appointment was. The day he called me I was overwhelmed with work, Christmas preparations and just life... so although I thought it was sweet that he went to all that trouble...I told him I was just too busy! After I got off the phone I felt really guilty for dashing his hopes and decided to call and schedule the appointment without telling him. So Noah and I went to the imaging center! Noah sat next to me and held my hand. When the lady told us it was a baby girl Noah jumped off the chair he was sitting on, folded his arms to his chest and walked out the door of our room. He sat himself onto a couch in the waiting room and started to cry saying "I don't want a sister." I couldn't believe it! Who needs a girl..what a little drama king he is! He recovered quickly and now is perfectly cool with having a little sister that he has to protect and take care of. Adam came home from work and we surprised him with the ultrasound pics. We have already named her...Mia Melinda Brigman (Melinda is my sweet mom's name)! I am super excited to be halfway there and can hardly wait to meet our little girl.

BABY!

2009-11-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

We are expecting a baby! Adam and I are SUPER excited. Noah is as well...but he is adamant that he is having a brother and not a sister. He has only come up with boy names including, Indiana Jones, Batman, Jonah (better) and Noah (hmmm he won't budge on this one). I don't think we will let him do any name picking.

Although I don't have a preference...I am feeling like this one is a girl. I think it is because I feel so much sicker this time around. We will find out sometime in December and I can hardly wait. How do people NOT find out what they are having? Couldn't do it! I forgot how yucky this phase is, but I remind myself everyday that "this too shall pass" and of course once the baby is here you forget about throwing up and labor pains and have an angel.

At dinner the other night, Noah was not eating. I told him to finish so we could clean up. His response, "Mom I can't eat my dinner. I am growing a baby in my belly that is making me sick." Adam and I laughed out loud! He stole that line from me.

I remember when Noah was born, I was soooo happy to have him here that I held him all night and barely slept. What a gift to have children! Can't think of a better reason to puke! LOL...preggy pics coming soon :)

p.s. My mom says I should post a picture of me holding a bottle of her canned peaches. Food grosses me out right now, but my mom's canned peaches...I could eat them all day. They are the only thing that tastes good! Good thing she has a 9 month supply :)

2009-11-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

How happy was Noah to be a pirate for Halloween!? He is pirate obsesssed right now and knew all the appropriate "pirate" phrases to use...singing Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me, calling other people "matey" and such. Halloween was a blast this year with him. He slept in his costume for like two weeks before Halloween. He saw a little boy dressed as Indiana Jones at our trunk or treat and wanted really badly to steal his whip. He has already decided, next year he is going to be Indiana.
Boys are the best. :)

Noah's Jack-o-lantern

2009-09-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

Funny Noah

2009-09-14T21:49:00.001-07:00

I don't know why this is so funny to me, but it is. Tonight Noah asked for a piece of string cheese. Pretty quickly after he took his first bite, he realized that he didn't like the new brand of sting cheese we just bought at the store. He came to me in my room and said, "this is yucky, I don't want it." To which I replied, "go into the kitchen, get a ziploc bag, put the cheese in the bag and back into the refridgerator." (Why waste a perfectly good piece of cheese). It is very obvious to me now that this was way too many and too specific directions for a 3 year old. So about a minute later Noah runs to Adam with a plastic Smith's grocery bag (pretty similar to a ziploc bag, he gets credit for this) and hands it to him. Adam asks what is is for and Noah replies, "for my cheese." Adam asks Noah where the cheese is...Noah has no idea. In one minute he has somehow lost the string cheese. For the next 20+ minutes, Adam, Noah and I search our small two bedroom condo for the missing cheese. We ask Noah where he put the cheese and he responds that " um I don't know, maybe I threw it under your bed?" What! Why?? Long story shorter...I finally find the cheese under the kitchen sink, in a box that holds our garbage bags. Oh to understand the mind of a three year old. :)

Noah has been cracking us up lately with his witty comments and silly personality. A few Sundays ago, we went into church and sat down. Noah stands up on the bench and loudly proclaims, "hey mom thats Barack Obama." Shocked that Noah even knows that name, I look ahead to see an african american man with short hair sitting on the bench in front of us. A total Barack Obama look alike. I laughed quietly and looked at Adam who was trying not to laugh. Then I shhhh Noah and tell him that no that is not the president and to be quiet. Noah looks at me as if I have no idea what I am talking about and responds even louder with, "well then who is it mama...that is Barack Obama." Many of our fellow church goers heard this all go down. Hopefully the Barack Obama look a like didn't hear. My smart little man.

Wedding Day

2009-08-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Adam and I were married in the Las Vegas Temple on May 15th. Absolutely the happiest day of my life! Our photographer Jeanna Hayes (jeannahayes.com) did a fabulous job. Here are a few of our favorites! :)

Wedding Dinner

2009-08-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

We had a small wedding dinner in my parents backyard, the evening before our wedding day. It was so much fun, so perfect and low key. We ate good food and treats, my sister Michelle sang "Better Together" by Jack Johnson (thats our song) with my brothers Eric and Jordon on guitar and ukulele. So sweet. Our parents gave us silly gifts, including a Robin costume for Adam since Noah is constantly wanting to play Batman and Robin. When Noah discovered the costume he ran up to Adam and said, "Put it on Adam!" It was great. We had a fabulous time and were grateful to have our family and closest friends there with us.

The Robin costume...such a good sport :)

Delicious cupcakes!!

Law School Grad!

2009-06-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

Adam graduated from Tulsa Oklahoma Law School on May 9th! Just in case you are confused..Adam attended his first two years of law school in Tulsa and then transferred to UNLV for his last year. He wasn't sure why he felt so strongly about coming to Vegas at the time he moved here, but then we met and it all made sense. :) Adam and I flew to Tulsa with his parents for the graduation and had such a good time there. It was beautiful and really fun to meet all of Adam's friends and teachers. Hooray for being done with school!

FLYING

2009-06-20T16:59:00.001-07:00

The Brigman family blog is now up and running. Fhew! Alot has happened since my last post on my old blog...so here is the run down.

Some of you might not know this about Adam, but he has a pilot's license! When we were dating he told me he would take me flying some time and I have to admit I was a little hesitant. I remember asking him before he took me up for the first time, "on a scale of one to ten how confident are you in your flying ability." He laughed at me and explained that he wouldn't get up in the air if he wasn't confident. He did not disappoint me...he is a great pilot. I wasn't sure Noah would enjoy flying in a small plane, but I was wrong. Adam says he makes a great co-pilot. Noah and I are Pilot Brigman's biggest fans. Here are some fun pics of us flying together!

Noah was learning to put his thumb up without his other fingers...he's just making sure its right..